Haut Var Exceptional Bastide

Cotignac is one of the most distinctive villages in the Haut-Var, built against a dramatic 80-metre tufa cliff face that defines its skyline and sets it apart from the broader Provençal landscape. The village retains a working, unhurried character, with a cours shaded by plane trees, stone fountains, and a market that has operated continuously for centuries. This is inland Provence at its most authentic, positioned between the Verdon gorges to the north and the Var coast to the south.

The weekly Tuesday market on the Cours Gambetta is the social anchor of the village. Restaurants including Lou Calen offer serious regional cooking. Aups, the self-declared truffle capital of France, is 20 minutes away. Salernes, known for its traditional terracotta tiles, and Lorgues, with its well-regarded restaurant Bruno, are both within a 25-minute drive.

Cotignac sits approximately 80 kilometres from Nice Côte d’Azur International Airport, reachable in around 90 minutes by car via the A8 motorway. Toulon-Hyères Airport is roughly 70 kilometres to the south, offering a faster regional option. The TGV station at Les Arcs-Draguignan connects to Paris in approximately three hours and is around 40 kilometres from the village. St Tropez is reachable in under an hour by road, and Monaco in approximately 90 minutes.